Made in China (buyer beware)
By Michael D. Sorkin
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Sunday, Jul. 01 2007
Americans were shocked and then angered this spring when their cats and dogs
began getting sick or dying from pet food that turned out to be tainted.
That has been followed by a near-daily stream of recalls warning about all
kinds of other toxic imported products, including toothpaste, baby bibs, toy
trains and human food.
Now consumers are wondering what else at the supermarket or home store might
hurt or kill them.
Last week alone the list included glassware from Pier 1, with 21 reports of
cracked or broken glass; reclining chairs blamed in eight injuries; car tires
blamed in two deaths; and fish and shrimp that the government says could cause
cancer.
These products, and many more, have at least one thing in common: All were
imported, and most were made in China.
Regulators say some cases involved outright fraud.
Imports from China didn't kill any pets, those products were made in North America by a company that either failed to protect there products, or there profit was there bottom line. I think we should also remember we are a world wide community, and have members in China. I for one believe a apology is in order to all our Members.
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ArcticFox,
I don't think an apology is in order. If you had followed the link and read the article you would have found this was not the words of someone from V is for Voltage but an excerpt from an article written on STLtoday.com. In this case Gman was just sharing a report and he even placed the following in his post to show it was not his words.
Look before you Leap,
Chas S.
My Bicycle Pages
` ;)
Chas,
Thanks, I believe he was connecting it with this post Re: North American Made Scooters?
Actually the article was more about what our Government is doing to protect us, than about China.
Personally I felt the Re: North American Made Scooters? was kind of heavy, since we are a World Wide Community, with Members from China.
I know if I lived in China, and read it I would feel, I'm not welcome here, but maybe I'm getting too personal as you can probably understand.
Our V is for Voltage Community is very democratic, and everyone is free to voice there opinion, and we move on.
Peace Out,
Gman
Now that we have clarified our beliefs, your invited to join us as we begin building on them to define our Community Mission Statement
Peace Out, <img src="http://tinyurl.com/ysafbn">
Gman
Also... public perception of a given product or producer is not always "fair". I speak from personal experience on this...
My day job is with Sun Microsystems, working in the team which produces the Java programming language. Java is widely maligned as being slow or ugly or buggy or whatnot .. and it's clear (to me and many) that this perception is based on the experience of the old Java releases. The state of Java today is much much much better than it was back then, and Java today isn't slow; ugly on the other hand is in the eye of the beholder and it's hard to objectively measure whether or not something is ugly. Yet, the public perception about Java persists regardless of how many improvements we make. And then there's spillover effect from javascript problems to where people think javascript = java and label java with problems coming from javascript.
So... there's this public perception that products from China tend to be crap. I think I wrote a comment on another thread about the crappy products from China. There are a lot of crappy products coming from China, but it's clear there's also a lot of good quality products from China. Further China has a rich cultural heritage going back thousands of years to a time when my ancestors in Europe were pretty backwards. e.g. I see an acupuncturist every week.
I think this public perception of China = Crap is akin to the perception of Java = slow ... it may not be accurate, but that's what people think. And as I mentioned in the other posting, it wasn't so long ago that public perception said Japan = crappy product, but that's not todays public perception.
- David Herron, http://davidherron.com/
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Kroger's pet food has been recalled. This is right after tests found aflatoxin in the food. I found this here: Kroger recalls pet food for aflatoxin risk. nineteen states are involved in Kroger's animal food recall. If consumed, the recalled animal food might be dangerous to animals. Liver failure and other major health effects could take place.
I don't get the point of accupuncture..(sorry, I just couldn't resist!)
China may indeed have a rich cultural heritage going back thousands of years, but so has Egypt and Iran. this doesn't make today's businesspeople of these nations terribly trustworthy, or adhere to US trading standards.
The PRC doesn't possess a compatible system of commercial law with western nations. In addition many manufacturers and PRC merchants are neither terribly well educated, nor very experienced when dealing with Western expectations. Most factory owners are ex-farmers, factory workers, etc.
This doesn't mean that the PRC has the same business culture as Nigeria, but simply means that the person with whom you are dealing, may have completely different expectations of quality control, fit for purpose etc..
Naive westerners often indignantly complain of unsatisfactory or fraudulent dealings with PRC manufacturers or merchants. In my experience, this is seldom the case. It's usually the greedy, self-deluding bargain hunting westerner, who is at fault.
Don't get me wrong, the PRC has it's share of thieves, liars and con-men, but invariably the real cause of most disputes is the ridiculous behaviour of the westerner, who lacks business experience in trading with the PRC.(probably lacks any real business experience full stop!)
If you are contemplating doing business with Independent PRC businesses , it can prove very worthwhile to engage an agent, usually from Hong Kong or the ROC, with strong links in the PRC. This can save a lot of angst and heartbreak on both sides.
Most PRC bargains, are not due to the wondrous merits of avoiding dealing with greedy western capitalists, but more likely due to the fact that the PRC has very different quality control and business practise standards!
All international trade must be conducted on a 'buyer beware' basis. Even when I deal with the US, I notice small differences, expectations and standards, and the US systems are generally very compatible.
The PRC will get better in time, but as a rule, products that have lots of sealed or hidden complex components are more likely to prove disappointing, than say, textiles or simpler more established products.
marcopolo
Hello,
If you had followed the link and read the article you would have found this was not the words of someone from V is for Voltage but an excerpt from an article written on STLtoday.com... ;)
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Sorry Coline, I seemed to have missed your reason for repeating the above comments by Chas and Gman??
marcopolo